An official-looking document arrives in your mailbox. Or perhaps it's
Grandma or Uncle Charlie that gets it. "Pending Disbursement!" it shouts,
or "Preparations to Pay". Unless you or Grandma drag out the
magnifying glass and read all the fine print, the conclusion is unavoidable
- you've just won anywhere between $10,000 and $2,000,000 in a sweepstakes.
All you have to do is send $5.00, or $10.00, or $27.50, to the "disbursement
office" or the "awards chairman", and you collect your prize.

Sadly, these mailings fall into the category of "Legitimate Scams",
and some of them are fronts for outright illegal activity. Send off
your money, and what you get in return is:

A list of sweepstakes that you can enter.

A check for $1.00, some worthless coupons, or some
other insignificant prize

Worst of all, you also get:

Your name on an ever-expanding "sucker list" that is bought and sold
by unscrupulous individuals who want your money, and will stop at nothing
to get it.

Don't think you or your family can be taken in? It's happening as
you read this, to people in all walks of life. The target of choice is
the elderly or the isolated, but anyone can be conned, especially when the
economy experiences a downturn. Sweepstakes fraud is
a multi-billion dollar business, and these swamp-dwellers are very
good at what they do.

Sweepstakes fraud is closely related to other kinds of
internet fraud such as the "Nigerian Banker" scheme, and in fact many
sweepstakes frauds originate from Nigeria, other places in Africa, or the
Netherlands and the UK where many African criminals have emigrated.
Others appear to be originating from China and often have to do with "we
need an agent to help us process payments for our import/export firm".
All of these scams have one purpose only: to get your money and your
identity information by whatever means possible.

This page is designed for one purpose only: to warn you and your
loved ones. If only one person is prevented from being taken in by these
fraudsters, it will have been worth the effort.

Direct questions about this web site to the webmaster: ccdesan{at}gmail{dot}com